New International Alliance

Submitted by Scott Jaschik on January 17, 2006 - 4:00am

At a time of increased attention for international education issues, 10 leading universities from around the world have created a partnership that organizers hope will lead to new forms of collaboration.

The International Alliance of Research Universities[1] was officially created at a meeting Saturday at the National University of Singapore, one of the member institutions. The others are: Australian National, Peking, and Yale Universities; the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology; and the Universities of California at Berkeley, Cambridge, Copenhagen, Oxford, and Tokyo.

Like other international collaborations, the alliance will sponsor a range of student and faculty exchange programs. But organizers said that they hoped to go beyond traditional exchange programs to also introduce joint and dual degree programs, joint research projects, and scholarly conferences involving professors from participating universities. As the alliance grows, it may also seek private and government support for its research projects and sponsor work on topics such as the commercialization of research.

A statement issued jointly by Cambridge and Oxford said that topics that have been discussed for joint research by alliance members includethe global movement of people, aging and health, food and water, energy and environment, and security.

In July,[2] some of the universities involved said that they were exploring a partnership, but they didn't release details or a membership list at that time.